Conor Fynes 'Todo.s Los Colores Del' - Random (8/10)

The word 'random' brings to mind, a lot of mental and musical imagery. Sporadic, jagged, and even nonsensical, the word is used to describe everything that is unpredictable, uncertain, and unplanned. Now, the band Random and their music are not quite as unexpected as the name may suggest, but there are definitely more than a fair share of surprises on this debut album from the Argentinian trio. Firing from a wide range of different angles within the metal world, the verbosely titled 'Todo.s Los Colores Del' is an incredibly eclectic hour of music that surprised and even shocked me at times; but most of all, it has left me feeling very impressed by what the band has accomplished here.

'Todo.s Los Colores Del' goes through a few different stages within the course of the hour, with each section gravitating towards a different stylistic approach. Random's sound is very diverse, and throughout this album, I was hearing everything from Pantera to Tool to Meshuggah to Primus to Mr. Bungle and even The Mars Volta and Pink Floyd. Despite being a fairly newcoming act, Random has already mustered one of the most exciting sounds I've heard from a debut album this year, although most of the sounds they make here can be traced to a fairly explicit origin. Hearing such a wide range of influences thrown together was very exciting, and Random makes sure to emphasize that they don't adhere to any one trick. On the whole, there are plenty of surprises here that couldn't all be concisely touched upon, but 'Todo.s Los Colores Del's first half draws mostly from alternative metal and thrashy grooves. Some of these ideas are executed pretty strangely, with the strange electronic lead of the first song's intro played out of sync with the rest of the music being a great example. There is Gojira's heaviness here, and when the band decides to get really intense, I was hearing the sort of slap bass quirk that Primus would use. It was really exciting stuff.

The second half only gets better. Here, the band tones down their thrashy edge and gets more adventurous. There is a much greater atmospheric vibe to the music on the latter part of the album, as well as a lean towards the harsh post-metal sounds of Tool and palm muted riffs of Meshuggah. It was here where I started noticing how diverse the band really was, especially towards the middle of the album where I was hearing latin rhythms and psychedelic soloing that could easily pass for the handiwork of The Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez. As far as gripes here go, the whole thing is phenomenal musically speaking, with some incredibly intense moments that impressed even someone who is now well-passed being a veteran of metal music. The album does seem to close out in a somewhat anti-climatic fashion, continuing to build up and then simply fading out quickly, which- even after listening to the album several times- still does not feel right to me. The biggest thing here that could have been a little better are actually the vocals, which at times sound perfect for whatever style they are playing in, but when the band gets heavy, I was not too impressed by the pseudo-melodic thrash vocals, which sounded out of key and therefore, very out of place on an album that consistently dazzled me on an instrumental level.

'Todo.s Los Colores Del'- suffice to say- has been a real jolt of fresh energy for me, and something that took several listens to grab me. There are a few faults here that I really hope the band deals with, but here is a real grower of a debut album, and I now eagerly anticipate what Random does next with their sound.

Sheavy (Original review from ProgArchives.com)

This debut from Argentinian Prog band, Random, is quite possibly the best release (that I have heard) of 2011. The music here is a highly eclectic mix of what sounds to me like deathcore, math rock/post rock, and something else entirely. Fans of BTBAM should have no problem enjoying this outstanding debut. All of the music here is well written and interesting, and the musical performance from the band is top notch, with Marcos Crosa's drumwork standing out as exceptionally good. The vocal performance is also noteworthy as their is clean singing along with the hardcore shout/growled vocals, that should make this more appealing to people who are interested in trying some Tech metal but not a big fan of the vocals.

I personnally love all the songs on this release, but for me the defining moment of this album is during the epic, Tururú, where the band is playing what is nothing more than a interesting breakdown, before this electronic undulating synth comes in. The drums start to roll almost chaoticly beneath the synth. I had to rewind and listen to this part multiple times, it gave me shivers up my spine (in a holy sh*t kind of way). Another standout is the song, Cuando el blanco no es color, which I think says translated, When the white has no color or something to that effect ( my Spanish is not the greatest ). This song is a amazing acoustic song with clean singing, and an added touch of violin playing at the begining. This song strikes me as really melancholic.

This is an album that should not be missed, one that should be in your Prog collection.

UMUR "Todo.s los colores del" is the debut full-length studio album by Argentinian alternative/ progressive metal act Random. The album was released in late August 2011 and is a self-released affair. I reviewed Random´s first release, the "Prrimo, the (2009)" EP a couple of years ago and was very impressed by that release and I was pretty excited to hear what the three-piece had conjured up for us this time. After all there´s a difference between entertaining and delivering music for the duration of an EP as opposed to a full-length album.

On "Todo.s los colores del", Random play alternative/ progressive metal. The tracks are very complex in structure with multible parts and innovative ideas but still Random manage to keep the tracks catchy and memorable. They successfully walk the delicate line between being technical/ progressive and being catchy and powerful. Random incorporate elements from groove thrash, alternative metal and progressive metal into what I think is a very unique style of music. Random are obviously very skilled musicians and pull off the stylistic changes with ease and elegance. The vocals by lead vocalist/guitarist Raúl García Posse are varied. He is able to deliver both really aggressive and raw vocals, more melodic raw vocals and beautiful clean singing too. His vocal range is actually quite impressive and a great asset to the band´s sound.

The album is very well produced and the sound production brings out the best in the music.

"Todo.s los colores del" is an eclectic listen and for those who like genre blending adventurous music it´s a great listen. Some tracks sound slightly patchy because of the many sections and ideas thrown into them, but I´d call it a slight issue and mostly it´s actually quite charming that you don´t know what´s in store for you. The band have chosen to write their lyrics both in their native language and in English and I think that combination works very well for them.

From the mellow and beautiful "As Far As Impossible" to the heavy and groovy "Cachafaz" to the progressive "Tururú", "Todo.s los colores del" is through and through a great album. Powerful sound production, excellent musicianship and adventurous songwriting. There´s not a single reason why this album should receive less than 4 stars.

Time Signature Tarzan's void...

Genre: eclectic progressive metal

I admit that I really like it when a band can operate within the confinements of a single genre and make use of the conventional features and aesthetics of that genre and still make something new out of it (like many retro thrash and speed metal bands do these days). However, I also really like it when a band just completely transgresses the boundaries of genre and implements aesthetics and elements from a lot of different genres into their music. This is, along with general derivation from the conventions of popular music, one of the reasons why I like progressive music.

Argentinian act Random fall into the second category, as they completely disregard all genre boundaries within the universe of metal. There is a bit of thrash metal, a bit of djent, a bit of metalcore, a bit of groove metal, a bit of alternative metal, a bit of grunge, a bit of sludge/doom, and a bit of extreme metal as well as hints of industrial metal, noise rock and melancholic indie rock - and they are not afraid of very melodic 'oohs' and 'aahs' either.

A lot of the riffage is crushingly heavy and Random are very good at combining simple, almost grungy riffage with more complex odd metered and rhythmically ambiguous sections, and this juxtraposition of heaviness, simplicity, uptempo-ness, and complexity generates a very dynamic feel to the music, and this dynamism is made even more evident via Random's insertion of clean and mellow passages, as well as more soundscape-like, jazzy, funky, and whatnot sections ('Tururu' is very much epitomic of Random's eclectic brand of modern progressive metal and full of all these changes, passages, moods and feels). Much of the riffage is, in addition to being solid and heavy, also quite groovy, and metalcore fans can look forward to a lot of crushing quality breakdowns - but Random certainly does not rely on breakdowns, they just use them very effectively to general dynamism in their music with tracks like the melancholic almost atmospheric track 'As Far As Possible' and the acoustic 'Cuando el blanco no es color' popping up amongst the heavy tracks.

All tracks are very dynamic in structure, as is the whole album, as Random are obviously skilled songwriters who have very broad backgrounds of inspiration, which shines through in their music. The performance is top notch on all accounts, to, and the production is wonderfully organic (especially the drums) and unpolished, yet it is clear and well-defined.

Progressive metal really seems to be expanding these days, as younger progressive metal artists start drawing on sources of inspiration that do not figure in more traditional progressive metal, and if you like artists like Fair to Midland and White Walls, who are know for their alternative metal-based approach to progressive metal, you are certain to like Random, too.

Andyman1125 As far as possible

Random is a young Argentinian progressive/alternative thrash metal band hailing from Argentina, who fuse numerous styles ranging from good ol' 80s thrash to alternative metal to djent to progressive death metal and more, making a truly eclectic and varied blend of metallic mayhem to greet your ears upon a first listen of their debut full length album, Todo.s los Colores Del (or, All the Colors of?), which easily blew me away. The three piece easily formulates sections of fast moving thrashy parts, extremely heavy near- gurgling low-range guitar riffing parts, quirky alternative metal parts, technical progressive metal parts, and endless other quips of style peppered throughout the dense ground work of heavy, heavy, heavy metal. The entire album is a wonderful display of the three guys' talent, both instrumentally and compositionally.

The album opens with a "Cachafaz" (Spanish for "rascal"), which is a great gauge of the style of the rest of the album. Opening with some industrial sounding electronics which is then complimented by some intense riffing, which switches between various styles willy- nilly and different levels of heaviness (all staying quite heavy throughout), the song shows the band's capability to write a generally insane, heavy, and progressive track with ease. Although the song's structure is a bit haywire, with the countless ideas and riffs within the song seemingly just slapped together in a truly eccentric and eclectic way, dueling the song as an absolute mess musically and a mind blowing journey of slap-happy progressive metal, the song is a great display of the band's talent, with the music being perfectly balanced between emotion and technicality (although the quirky aspect of the music makes it seem a bit silly at times).

Much of the album shares a similar style to the opener, with the epic 11 minute "Tururu" laden with heavy as all hell riffs and rapidly shifting styles, the softer "As Far as Impossible" adding a wonderful dynamic to the heavy music, and the melancholic and beautiful "Cuando el Blanco no es Color" (or "when white is not a color," I believe) adding another solemn dynamic to the album with very deliberate nylon acoustic work and atmospheric vocals and other instrumentation. Throughout the album this eclectic blend of heavy and occasionally light moments makes the album a real treat for fans of the "artsy" side of heavy metal.

In the end, Random's Todo.s los Colores Del is an incredible ride. As I've said many times, three guys obviously have a huge range of influences as the album contains within its 56 minutes a near uncountable number of eclectic and diverse sounds that all mesh together into one truly wonderful product. Although at points all these influences seem to boil over and the band has a hard time connecting all of their ideas into a cohesive piece of music, the album still flows with a wonderful aura of maturity in the riffs, composition, and production of the album. Being a debut, I was wary of what the quality of the music would turn out to be, but the band seems to have nailed the production wonderfully, with a great blend of clean sound and slightly damp atmosphere to give presence to the heavy, deep guitar riffs, intense rhythms and rumbling bass lines that make up the trio of musicians. This combined with professional music make this album a true gem in the progressive groove metal genre, and setting this new band on the path to great things. 4 stars.